“I’m just happier than hell that it’s gone,” said one Alberta grower after the Fresh Vegetable Producers Board collapsed recently.
“Problems have been building for the past couple of years and the fact that they are gone does make me very happy,” said Casey Gouw Jr., an onion grower from Taber.
The board’s seven directors resigned their seats to allow the provincial government to put a trustee in place of the staff and begin to shut down the producer organization.
Gouw and several of the other large growers formerly regulated by the 23-year-old board called for the provincial government to close it late last month.
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Majority against
“They served no purpose for larger growers and refused to listen to our needs,” said Gouw. “We represent 60 percent of the products grown. How did they think we would respond?”
Of the 94 grower-members, Gouw said 10 to 15 are deeply unhappy with the board. Supporters of the board counted only four opponents.
David Jensen, former chair and a grower from Taber, said the board did important work in lobbying government on crop insurance and pesticide regulations, as well as other aspects of marketing and support.
Despite recent changes to the board, which included dropping minimum price standards, central invoicing and promises to lower the 2.25 percent levy on gross sales, the larger growers still found the board did not meet their needs.
The closure of the board will result in the “pulling of the regulations for this current growing season,” said Brian Rhiness, of the Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council, which controls provincial marketing groups.
“We will have a referendum of growers in the fall and the future of the board will be decided then. With all the fighting that has gone on we couldn’t allow this to affect this year’s crop. The producers can decide after harvest,” he said.
